Venkateshwarlu Bandla

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The Respondent, sole director of Ven Solicitors Limited, was found to have dishonestly misled the SRA on his 2015/2016 annual return by stating his firm was insured by AIG Europe Ltd when it was not, using a policy number from a prior Alpha Insurance policy. He failed to obtain professional indemnity insurance for 2015/2016, and abandoned his firm without effecting an orderly wind-down or notifying clients/SRA before leaving for India. The Tribunal applied the Twinsectra test and found dishonesty proven. All three allegations were proved. With no exceptional circumstances per SRA v Sharma, the Tribunal struck him off the Roll and ordered costs of £7,552.99. The Respondent did not appear or engage. A later out-of-time appeal application was refused and struck out as abuse of process in 2025.

Duties found breached:

• Act in the client's best interests
• Cooperate openly with regulators
• Firm governance, systems and compliance
• No improper use of client money
• No taking unfair advantage
• Orderly wind-down and contingency cover
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Deliberately and dishonestly misled the SRA to conceal lack of indemnity insurance
• Used policy number from previous insurer (Alpha) to mislead - planned and calculated
• Abandoned his firm showing complete disregard for professional obligations
• Failed to cooperate with regulator
• Did not engage with SRA or proceedings
• Ought reasonably to have known conduct breached obligations to protect public

Mitigating factors:

• Previous good record (no prior disciplinary matters)